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Cyclonic eddies rotate anticlockwise (clockwise) in the Northern (Southern) hemisphere and have a cold core. Anticyclonic eddies rotate clockwise (anticlockwise) in the Northern (Southern) hemisphere and have a warm core. The temperature and salinity difference between the eddy core and the surrounding waters is the key element driving vertical ...
A baroclinic instability is a fluid dynamical instability of fundamental importance in the atmosphere and ocean. It can lead to the formation of transient mesoscale eddies, with a horizontal scale of 10-100 km. [1] [2] In contrast, flows on the largest scale in the ocean are described as ocean currents, the largest scale eddies are mostly created by shearing of two ocean currents and static ...
In oceanography, a gyre (/ ˈ dʒ aɪ ər /) is any large system of ocean surface currents moving in a circular fashion driven by wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity, horizontal friction and vertical friction determine the circulatory patterns from the wind stress curl ().
Isopycnal slopes are key for determining the depth of the global Pycnocline, and where water mass outcrops are. Therefore, isopycnals play an important role in the interaction with the atmosphere. In the Southeren Ocean it is thought that isopycnals are steepened by wind forcing and baroclinic eddies are acting to flatten the isopycnals. [3]
This current as part of a baroclinically unstable system meanders and creates eddies (in much the same way as a meandering river forms an oxbow lake). These types of mesoscale eddies have been observed in many major ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream , the Agulhas Current , the Kuroshio Current , and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current ...
The world's largest ocean gyres. Western boundary currents may themselves be divided into sub-tropical or low-latitude western boundary currents. Sub-tropical western boundary currents are warm, deep, narrow, and fast-flowing currents that form on the west side of ocean basins due to western intensification. They carry warm water from the ...
A geostrophic current is an oceanic current in which the pressure gradient force is balanced by the Coriolis effect. The direction of geostrophic flow is parallel to the isobars , with the high pressure to the right of the flow in the Northern Hemisphere , and the high pressure to the left in the Southern Hemisphere .
The eddies appeared to be caused mostly by topography (particularly islands), wind, and instabilities in the current. These eddies lay mainly between the California Current (flowing toward the equator) and the coastline. [3] The majority of these eddies were cyclonic and had the ability to induce the upwelling of nutrient-rich water.